Hedge fund Zais Group plans to list its real-estate investment trust in an initial public offering worth up to $140 million.

Zais Financial Corp. filed to list on the New York Stock Exchange last week. The year-and-a-half old REIT is managed by Zais REIT Management, a division of Red Bank, N.J.-based Zais.

In its filing, Zais Financial reported a profit of $17.6 million in the first nine months of last year. Its portfolio was worth an estimated $163.4 million on Sept. 30.

Zais Financial buys highly-rated, non-agency mortgage-backed securities, although it plans to eventually focus on residential whole loans and newly-originated loans.

Zais Financial will trade under the ticket symbol ZFC. It did not specify how many shares it planned to sell in the preliminary filing, although it did say that Barclays Capital, Citigroup, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank Securities would serve as lead underwriters.

Zais was founded in 1996 by former JPMorgan Chase executive Christian Zugel. The hedge fund has about $5.5 billion in assets under management.

Editor's Note

In our new section, FINtech Focus, we will profile one of these firms each week. While fintech is a broad category, we will be focusing on firms that specifically cater to the alternative investment industry. Read more…